Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Another over-nighter at the hospital

All through the weekend, Carter was getting more and more tired and pale, but not to the point where we thought it was urgent to take him in for a transfusion.  I was planning to take him in early Monday morning, before our scheduled appointment because I was pretty sure he would need blood.  Well, early Monday morning, at around 5am, he woke up and was acting weird.  His daddy got up with him first and came in a little while later and asked me to go see if I thought he was ok because he was getting worried about him.  When I went in there, Carter was speaking in sentences but some of the words he was saying were not real words.  He was getting really frustrated that I didn't know what he was saying.  He would get up and try to show me but even that didn't make sense.  We started to get really worried so quickly packed him up in the car and headed for the ER.  He screamed and yelled at me for the first ten minutes, demanding that I turn around and take him back home.  It was heartbreaking to listen to, but I was glad he was at least making sense and using real words.  I called his Oncologist to let him know we were coming so the ER was expecting us when we got there.  They took us right back.  While we were waiting for the results of his CBC, I was trying to see if he was speaking more clearly or not.  He was being very quiet and it was hard to get him to say much to me at all.  A few times he started telling me something and then just stopped mid-sentence.  I asked him to tell me his whole name and he just looked at me, a little confused and finally said, "you do it."  So I said his full name and asked him to repeat it.  It took a full minute for him to figure out how to say his first and middle name, and it wasn't pronounced correctly.  He didn't even attempt his last name.  These past 8 months have been full of scary moments but this one was REALLY scary.  We finally got his blood counts and his hemoglobin was extremely low at 3.6.  Last week it was at 7 which is right on the border of needing a transfusion.  It was now as low as it was when he was first diagnosed.  I could not believe it had dropped that low so quickly.  His platelets were also very low at 13,000.  They had him on IV fluids and then got his platelet transfusion done before taking us upstairs to be admitted.  Since his count was so low, his first red blood cell transfusion had to go in over 4 hours.  Yes, I said FIRST.  After that one was done, his hemoglobin was up to 4.4 - not good enough.  So over the night, he got another transfusion and it came up to 6.something (I can't remember exactly).  In the morning they started another transfusion and it came up to 7.7.  Finally.  Even after getting fluids in the ER he was acting a little better.  After the first transfusion he was doing pretty good.  When I got back to the hospital yesterday morning, his last transfusion had just completed and I could not believe the difference from the previous morning.  He's totally back to normal.  What a relief!  The doctors told us the reason he was acting so loopy was because of his low red cell count.  Since red blood cells carry oxygen, his brain was just not getting the oxygen it needed.  Especially how his numbers dropped so quickly, it can cause the altered mental state that we saw.  We'll go back in tomorrow to check counts and see if he needs more blood.
The silver lining in all this?  He still got his chemo yesterday so we're still on schedule.  But that's not the best part....  One that he was scheduled to get was PEG-Asparaginase (the leg shots).  I was going to wait till they did the shots Monday night before leaving to go home with the two younger kids.  The nurse, knowing I was waiting for that, came and told us that they were giving him that drug IV!!!!!!  I almost did a back flip right there in the hospital room.  No joke.  He ended up getting the his medicines Tuesday after all the transfusions were done then we headed home in the afternoon.  We're hopeful that this could be his last admission to the hospital.  Maintenance is just two weeks away and his counts should stay pretty consistent through-out.  So cross your fingers for him!

4 comments:

  1. Scary that it had such an effect on him! But nice that you got to do all the drugs IV!

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  2. Sometimes my heart breaks for him, and all of you... I am so proud of your whole family and the strength you have in dealing with all of this. This picture made me cry, we sure love him.

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  3. Oh gosh ... that is really scary!! Thank goodness maintenance is getting closer.

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  4. Oh Robin, I think watching someone you love act loopy is scarier than watching them lay around on the couch, or be tired and sick. I'm glad he was taken care of and that he is still on track. Love to all of you!

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